Punjab professor develops software that converts English texts to sign language grammar

This new software spells good news for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. A professor from Jallandhar in Punjab, Dr Lalit Goyal, says he has developed a software that translates English texts to Indian Sign language (ISL) synthetic animations.

The software can convert simple English sentences to Indian Sign Language with more than 85% accuracy. Goyal says this is the first and the only working model in India which can convert the English text to ISL in real time.

The system uses computer-generated animations which increases the speed of the system substantially. Goyal says the software has been clubbed with a bilingual dictionary of more than 2,400 words that were created using the videos made by an institute for the deaf at Coimbatore.

Goyal claims that this computer-generated animation will make communication process easier by converting the text into the sign language grammar.

The software could help school-going children at the moment. Upon improvement, it would become more useful for normal people as well while communicating with deaf and speech impaired children.

Goyal’s team is in contact with the Indian Singh Language Research and Training centre (ISLRTC) to get an MOU to start new projects as well.

Watch in Sign Language